Samuel
Mark 10-27 - Anything is possible through God - Message by Samuel
Mark 10:27
"And Jesus looking upon them saith, With men it is impossible, but not with God: for with God all things are possible."
Anything is possible, but not through man. With man, we only scratch the surface of what’s possible. With God, there is no limit. Anything is possible through God. In Christ, we have strength, willpower, wisdom, well beyond human standards. Now let’s head back a little to vs. 25, which says, “It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle, than for a rich man to enter into the kingdom of God.” The Matthew Henry Commentary says that “Some imagine there might be some wicket-gate, or door, to Jerusalem, commonly known by the name of the needle’s eye, for its narrowness, through which a camel could not be got, unless he were unloaded, and made to kneel. So a rich man cannot get to heaven unless he is willing to part with the burden of his worldly wealth and stoop to a humble religion’s duties and enter a narrow gate.” This is a great example of faith in God. If we imagine ourselves like the camel, it is way easier for us than a rich man to sacrifice all that we have to God. A rich man is like a single thread, stronger but not easily flexible, and it will not go through the needle’s eye unless it is untwisted. So the rich man must be loosed and disentangled from all his riches, and then there is hope for him. The disciples were very alarmed when hearing this as it says in vs. 26 and asked themselves, “Who then can be saved?”. With men it is truly impossible; but the grace of God can do it, for with Him all things are possible. We must give all the glory to God because salvation comes from God. Salvation is very scarce, especially for those who have abundance in this world. Those who only seek the wealth of this world, will never rightly prize Christ and His grace. However, the ones who do have salvation devote all their lives to God. We must do the same. There are many so-called Christians, but unfortunately, there is only a very small percentage of true Christians. These are the ones that devote everything to God, who sacrifice their belongings, and who would follow God’s commands without compromise. It’s very hard to follow God because the narrow path is only for those who are strong in their faith. The path is narrow like a needle’s eye, and very easy to fall off from it. The path of sin of worldly riches and of pleasures is wide and easy to follow because many go that direction. This is like an addiction, the more you do it the more you will want it until it becomes your life. Who then can be saved? If it’s so hard to have faith in God, who can be saved? Like we said in our recent quiet times, we just have to ask God. When we ask, we will receive. This should be our prayer. When I pray I ask for the same thing pretty much over and over again, “thank you for this meal, and let us be safe, healthy, and strong”, and whaddya know we have stayed pretty safe and healthy and strong even though this virus is going around. Some people might say it’s uncreative, but it works. So maybe you can ask God while you pray and God might answer you or He might not; ultimately it depends not on you but Him. It all starts by asking the right request, one that pleases God and is according to His will. That’s why it’s important to know the scriptures, Old Testament and New. When we pray according to God’s words then He is most likely going to answer you. Just like Jerusalem’s gates are narrow, we need to enter the narrow gate “ETERNAL LIFE” and not do what everybody else is doing. Let us have a strong faith in God, and not stray from the narrow path to God
Ephesians 2:8-9 - Message by Samuel
Ephesians 2:8-9
"For by grace you have been saved through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the gift of God; not as a result of works, so that no one may boast. "
I think this is talking about how we can’t be saved without God. It says that we have been saved by the “gift of God” not by works, which basically means to my understanding that no matter how many good works you do, you will never be ably to be saved. To be saved you must be close to God, and I’ve said this in 2 of my past q.t.s but, “going to church, reading the bible, praying, etc. Whatever gets you close to God means you’re in the right course of action”. If you were a non-christian imagine how hard it’ll be to believe, the Case for Christ is a great example of that, in the end Strobel says, ”Ok, you win God”, because all the evidence pointed straight towards God is real or the resurrection is real in that case. In v.4 it says, “But because of his great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy.” And a little of verse 5 says, “it is by grace you have been saved.” Pretty much means that not only His grace allows us to be saved but also His undying love for us. And verse 9 says, “that by works, so that no one can boast.” Which basically means that not by works will you be saved because you will be prideful and boast about what you have done but you really haven’t done anything because you weren’t saved doing it. Verse 3 says, “(read verse in bible) I think that means that we love our physical bodies too much. And we are following its desires and thoughts. But in reality, this body is not important at all, the real important body is our spiritual one and we can only be saved to get it. When we’re are saved, we get this really to good to be true bundle including: our spiritual body, heaven, and God. Now nothing is better than spending quality time with our one true father and really going on that walk with God or that staircase to heaven but to get there, you must run to God first. Run and catch up with God for He has given you the gift to be saved! Now God has infinite blessings and undying love for us but how do we get it? Here’s how: First believe that Jesus loves you and even died on the cross for our sins. And he did that simply because he loves us. We are His creation and He want’s every single one of us to go to heaven. Of course, getting closer to God is one of the ways but really its only 1 step to getting saved. And that’s all it takes, one step on that staircase to God. Now as many of you pointed out that some non-christians actually read the bible more than us but maybe doesn’t fully understands what it is trying to say to them. But we must pray for these people who don’t understand to understand that God died for them as well and all of us. If they understand then that’s just more people on that staircase to heaven.